At its inaugural annual conference on October 24 in New York, the International Legal Finance Association (ILFA) gathered a group of senior in-house lawyers to talk about how GCs think about the economics of litigation and the role of legal finance.
Steven Greenspan, Corporate Vice President and Chief Litigation Counsel of Raytheon Technologies, one of the world’s largest multinational aerospace and defense manufacturers was one of the panelists and disabused the conventional wisdom that a company as large as Raytheon would not be interested in legal finance. He also expressed his expectation that the company’s outside counsel understand the legal finance industry and consider possible financing arrangements for the company’s litigation matters. Greenspan’s perspective is a clear reminder that GCs increasingly expect their panel law firms to be ready to advise and educate them on the availability of legal finance.
No matter the size and the capital availability of the client, law firms should be ready to present innovative litigation financing solutions and ideas. This reflects recent findings in a survey of GCs, in which nearly three in ten in-house lawyers (28%) say that while their panel law firms have not talked about the availability of legal finance, doing so would have aided their company’s success.
Proactively educating clients about legal finance gives law firms another opportunity to demonstrate innovation and partnership. Burford regularly helps law firms start the conversation about legal finance with their clients.
The panel was moderated by Aviva Will, Co-COO of Burford Capital, the panel included Steven Greenspan, Corporate Vice President and Chief Litigation Counsel, Raytheon Technologies; Sandy Grimm, Chief Legal Officer, Southeastern Grocers; Nicholas Trutanich, Executive Vice President of Litigation, Fox Corporation; and Rishi Varma, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
